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Coincidentally, Aidan Turner previously filmed at Chavenage House (The Priory in Rivals)

Chronology

It follows Rupert Campbell-Black and Tony Baddingham, who have a long-standing rivalry that comes to a head.

The same filming location was also used to depict Trenwith House in the 2015 BBC TV adaptation of Poldark

So of course I read the book ages ago (it was like a coming-of-age ritual in a certain time and place) and to be honest I didn’t remember much beyond the odd name (because some of Jilly’s creations were so de rigeur – Rupert Campbell Black says it all – and kind of passed into the lexicon), but almost immediately I started, if not remembering the plot wholesale, then getting a synaptic jolt from the intoxicating scent of YSL Opium from watching Rivals.

This adaptation (one episode) seems to do it just right

It’s silly giggles instead of laugh-out-loud laughs, and spicy rather than salacious.

and the socio-political commentary, while not shoved in your face, is much more obvious than when reading the books

He quickly built a world — the 80s, greedy Thatchers and yuppies, bored wives and fearsome warrior women, all treated like meat no matter what they do, yes, cigars and the song of the bird, the English social class, Britain in a globalising world trying to hammer its way to the top…

Okay, it’s a bit of pantomime, but for heaven’s sake, why not?!

Perhaps because I’m older and have met more people, Cooper’s critique of British culture is more obvious, but I think it’s also the casting, the accents, the costumes — extracting each character’s habitus (to quote Bordeau) and presenting it for the audience to ponder, admire, humiliate and/or titillate.